If you are fortunate enough to have a substantial sized garden with the potential of taking advantage of natural features, then you may want to have the design done professionally. If this is the case, then you will be hiring landscape architects in Austin.
First contact:
As you drive around and see a beautifully designed garden, do not hesitate to stop and contact the owner of the home. Tell him how you admire his garden and explain that you too want to have the work designed professionally and ask for the name and details of the designer who did his work. If this is not possible, the next best place to find a firm is on the Internet. Regardless of how you get the names, be prepared with a list of questions that you can ask and discuss over the first telephone contact.
You obviously cannot paint a picture of your vision over the phone but you can get first impressions:
1. Was the architect courteous and was he informative when answering your questions?
2. Did you get satisfactory answers to your questions?
3. Did you feel the call was rushed or did you feel the architect gave you inquiry importance?
When talking to the architect, ask for a few references. Any landscape architect that is worth having is one who will be proud of his past designs and they will be happy to provide you with references of local clients.
Meet the candidates:
After you have followed through and contacted his references, should the feed-back be positive, call the landscape architects in Austin and invite them to your home. You will have certain ideas of what you might like to see, draw a simple sketch of the area and the features you like, this will become the basis of the conversation. The landscape architect will show up for the meeting with his portfolio which shows previous work, especially detailed features. This is helpful because you may very well see something which is what you had in mind.
During the meeting, check to see that they are registered and ask to see their insurance certificates for liability and workers comp. Ask if they are bonded and find out if all their details are current.
If you meet with more than one landscape architect, ask the same questions and go through the same process. Treat the interviews as if the architects were entered in a competition and the grand prize is your contract. Select the team who you feel comfortable with as you will be spending a considerable amount of time together while the project is under-way.
Select landscape architects in Austin who you feel will listen and within reason, take my comments into account as they satisfy my overall expectations.
